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It was the first time I had felt like a queen in earnest. I was the daughter of Osiris, heir to the throne, and this army wasmine. I led the troops through the docks of Prins, towards The Shadow.

The streets were empty.

The shops boarded up.

No laundry hung from the balconies of the town homes here—no taverns had patrons spilling out of them.

Prins was quiet.

We approached The Shadow as an army and descended the steps. I noticed more and more Shades leaving their homes to join our force. Shades were spilling out onto the streets to join us, to march against Donika.

With my magic bound and an army at my back, I had never felt so powerful. When we made our way out of The Shadow and the merchant district of Prins was behind us, we stopped to rest before the plains of Akra.

Donika wouldn’t be able to see our force from here, but if she still had spies in the city—which I’m sure she did—she would know we were coming. We set up camp outside of the forest before the castle, pitching tents and starting fires to cook food and keep the troops warm under the frosty night air.

Summers in Istmere truly were unpredictable.

As I helped Nik set up our tent, I saw someone join Annelise and Amiyah out of the corner of my eye. It was Fleur, the woman from the tavern in Akra. The one who had given me a free meal when I had been battered and bruised, after I had escaped the house of Noctani I was being held captive in. The one who wore the glamour.

She shot me a wink before disappearing into the crowd.

Even the most unlikely of folks had joined our force in the end. I still couldn’t believe we had managed to sway Alastir into battle after they had tried to get him to join the resistance for over a decade. Donika would surely be surprised when shesaw him at my side when we stormed the castle. She likely hadn’t seen him since the day she murdered my father.

We had each pitched our tents and retired for the night, excitement stirring the air and making sleep an intangible thing. I lay beside Nik on the bedroll he had laid out for me, surrounded by the resistance. I had never felt so safe, despite the construction of the tent being questionable at best. Nik had tried his best, but we all had our weaknesses.

As if reading my thoughts Nik threw his head back against his makeshift pillow and laughed. “What can I say, building tents isn’t my strong suit.”

I quirked a brow at him. “I thought you were good at everything?”

“We are safely out of the cold night air… are we not?” he asked, pulling me against him.

I buried my face in his neck, running my fingers through his hair.

“I wish you could be with me tomorrow.”

He sighed heavily against me. “Me too. It isn’t too late to change the plan—”

I cut him off with a deadpan glare. “You know why we have to be separate. It’s the same reason Zion and Annelise have to be separate. The binding doesn’t only bind our magic… it binds ourlives.”

Nik nodded. “I know, I know.” He ran his hand along my shoulder blade, rubbing the muscles that had formed into a knot there. “I just wish I could be by your side, that’s all. I hate to be apartfrom you.”

I sent a wave of warmth down the bond and Nik tilted his head to gaze down at me. “You’ll always be with me as long as we are connected,” I told him. “It might not be words… but you’ll know if I’m ok.”

The corner of Nik’s mouth raised in a half smile. “The moment it’s over you’ll come find me?”

I nodded against him. “Of course. Or you’ll find me. The moment it’s over.”

We still had the obstacle of the immortality spell not being broken to contend with, but we had all decided that was a bridge we would cross when we came to it. Annelise had assured us she would figure out a way to transfer the spell, though she hadn’t any luck with that yet. I didn’t want Amiyah taking it on herself merely because she was blood. I didn’t want anyone else to be linked to that sliver of Donika’s soul. I didn’t want her to take down anyone else in her desperate attempt at immortality. The only solution I could live with was capturing one of Donika’s drones and allowing them to bear the burden.

I knew I needed rest, but sleep eluded me. Nik offered to add a sleep spell to my skin, but I refused. I didn’t want to risk being groggy in the morning—I needed to be at my sharpest. It was the middle of the night before I finally fell into a fitful sleep, and only a matter of hours later woke to the clatter of the rising camp.

Nik and I assembled our packs and deconstructed his poor excuse for a tent. We stashed our packs in the forest, needing to travel lean from here on out. Once we made it onto the plains of Akra before the castle we would split off, Niktowards Donika’s force on the open fields, me towards the mountain pass.

Zion had introduced me to the resistance members who would accompany me into the castle, and I was confident in his choices. A few of them I recognized from the battle at Prins, and I gave them my thanks for offering to travel with me into the secret passageways. Our task would be simpler in a way, but also more dangerous. We knew Donika would have a contingent of Noctani protecting her, and we needed to avoid them stealing our magic at all costs.

We still had one antidote we could use, but we had no plans of using it today. We didn’t have the time, and we couldn’t take the risk. We needed to bring down Donika and her army as quickly as possible—before the casualties stacked up.

The camp became eerily quiet as everyone packed their things, preparing for battle. The sun had barely risen and cast the camp in a pink glow. I wasn’t sure if it was an ominous sign from the Mother or merely a coincidence.